The House Museum of Michelangelo Buonarroti

The castle where Michelangelo Buonarroti was born is now a House Museum that creates a direct link between the Renaissance and the 1900s. 

Come inside Michelangelo’s house. The castle in Caprese sits on a hill overlooking the Singerna river in the town of Caprese Michelangelo within the Valtiberina area. Despite centuries of battles between Arezzo and Florence, the Castle of Caprese resisted and became the last medieval bastion of the valley. The ruins of this ancient fortification can still be seen today.

Michelangelo Buonarroti was born in Caprese, at the Palazzo di Podestà or the Palace of the Mayor. His father, Ludovico di Buonarroto Simoni was sent to govern Caprese every six months for the Republic of Florence and as fate would have it, Michelangelo was born there in 1475.

Today this Castle is known as the House Museum of Michelangelo Buonarroti and consists of three main buildings: “Palazzo del Podestà” or Palace of the Mayor, the “Palazzo Clusini” or Clusini Palace and  and the “Corte Alta” or High Court. These buildings are all enclosed within the walls of the castle, along with the ancient Parade Ground, used today as a garden for exhibitions.

The museum contains a unique collection of reproductions of Michelangelo’s statues. These reproductions are not simple plaster casts, instead they are precious reproductions of great historical value because some of them represent rare, unique and authentic casts made from the original statues.

What makes a visit to this place extraordinary is the opportunity to see some of Michelangelo’s greatest masterpieces all together in one place. Today the original statues are dispersed in places like Florence, Rome, Bologna, Milan, Paris, London and Bruges.

Among the most precious items in the museum are the head and the hand of the David statue, the Saint John – the first copy of the original which was lost in Berlin during the Second World War, the Madonna of Bruges, the Cupid, the Angel with the Candlestick, the “Pietà” housed at the Vatican, the “Bacco,” the Risen Christ, and the Rondanni “Pietà.”

From the Renaissance to the 20th century.

In the garden and in the Castle’s galleries,  the genius of Michelangelo is celebrated with a collection of sculptures by 19th and 20th century artists. 

It’s a kind of renewal of Michelangelo’s immortal genius via the expressive medium of sculpture that seeks to create new messages and new materials.